Mario Piperni dot Com

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Money’s tight. Economy sucks. What to do?  Missouri’s got it figured out.

Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.

Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat.

That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates. It’s just one of more than 130 untaxed transactions that are getting renewed attention in Jefferson City because of the state’s continuing budget crisis.

Just further proof of Republican’s total disregard for anyone but the rich.  What a screwed up, conscienceless party of scum.

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(Hat Tip: Balloon Juice)

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I’m enjoying watching every Republican with hopes of running in 2012 trying to move further right than the guy before him. First we had Mitt Romney doing his I’m a CONSERVATIVE!! hoopla. Now it’s Tim Pawlenty’s turn. It’s getting harder to tell the difference between a CPAC convention, a Tea Party idiot get-together and a Barnum and Bailey clown reunion.

Here’s Pawlenty doing his flag-waving shtick for the rabid crowds of mouth-foaming conservatives.

“We’re planting the flag on constitutional ground, and if you try to take our freedoms, we will fight back.”

And what’s a fiery speech without the invocation of Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War.

“The implication is, we’re kind of bumpkins. Well, history is on our side. The Constitution is on our side. We’re on the side of freedom. We’re on the side of individual responsibility. We’re on the side of free markets. We’re on the side of rule of law. We’re on the side of limited government. And like Grant, we fight.”

Sure they are. Which is why Republicans broke every one of those vows during the Bush years and none of these diehard conservatives complained at the time. Also, it makes me laugh how these guys believe that the Constitution, freedom and rule of law are conservative traits.

They’re getting wackier by the week.

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Here’s how Republican bipartisanship works:

1)  February 8, 2010. John Boehner demands that the White House post health care proposals online.

“If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours beforehand?”

2) February 12, 2010. The White House agrees to do exactly that.

“Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package.”

3) February 13, 2010. John Boehner complains…

“A productive bipartisan discussion should begin with a clean sheet of paper.”

What more does anyone need to know about Republican intent than this little example of nonsense?

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Doesn’t this say it all so perfectly…

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Is being an asshole a prerequisite for being a Republican these days?

…tens of thousands of illegal Haitian immigrants can remain temporarily in the U.S. while their country rebuilds after Tuesday’s devastating earthquake.

The announcement to grant “temporary protective status,” or TPS, to Haitian nationals allows immigrants already in the U.S. to live and work freely here until conditions in Haiti improve. After 18 months the status could be revoked.

So who with a shred of decency would object?

While several liberal groups and members of Congress had urged the administration to declare TPS for Haitians, conservative immigration groups, as well as a Republican congressman, had said such a move would amount to a slippery slope to “amnesty.”

“This sounds to me like open borders advocates exercising the Rahm Emanuel axiom: ‘Never let a crisis go to waste,’” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said in an e-mail message to ABCNews. “Illegal immigrants from Haiti have no reason to fear deportation, but if they are deported, Haiti is in great need of relief workers, and many of them could be a big help to their fellow Haitians.”

Actually, “never let a crisis go to waste” should be the Republican motto these days. They have been relentless in politicizing every single issue which has made the news. And if there is no crisis, they invent one.  Republicans have shifted so far to the right they now exist in a world where paranoia is the norm and where demons and bogeymen inhabit every nook and cranny of their demented minds.

Pathetic does not begin to describe what the GOP has become.

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Here’s another idiotic idea from Republicans.

Congressman Gresham Barrett (R-SC) has announced his intention to reintroduce legislation that would prohibit “the admission of aliens from countries designated as State Sponsors of Terrorism as well as Yemen to the United States.”  The Stop Terrorist Entry Program (STEP) Act, first introduced in 2003, also would have required all persons from these countries on student visas, temporary work visas, exchange and tourist visas to leave the United States within 60 days, despite their legal status in the country.  Residents and nationals of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen would be affected.

Congressman Barrett said his bill came in response to the Fort Hood shooting and the Christmas-day attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit. “While President Obama may have declared an end to the War on Terror, it is clear our enemies did not get the message. Twice in the past two months, radical Islamic terrorists have attacked our nation and the Administration has failed to adapt its national security and immigration policies to counter the renewed resolve of those who seek to harm our citizens.”

This knee-jerk, simplistic response to the Fort Hood shootings and the undie-bomber would do nothing more than anger and alienate moderate Muslims. And it would do nothing to make the country safer. There have been no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from either Iranians or Cubans.

What we’re looking at here is Republicans looking to appease the Muslim-hating xenophobes in their party. The teabaggers and rednecks would love it.  I could imagine them cheering as roaming gangs of repubs scour the countryside rounding up Iranians and others with funny sounding names and throw them in the back of cattle cars in preparation for deportation.

Will they ever learn?

Yes, we need to fix our intelligence. Yes, we absolutely must live up to our own ideals, as President Obama is trying to do in banning torture and closing Guantánamo Bay. We can’t let this “war on terrorism” consume us. We can’t let our country become just The United States of Fighting Terrorism and nothing more. We are the people of July 4th — not Sept. 11th.

-Thomas Friedman

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These guys believe in nothing – nothing – but regaining power.

Some of the same Republican lawmakers currently criticizing the President for softness on terrorism voted back in July 2007 against legislation that, among other reforms, provided $250 million for airport screening and explosive detection equipment.

And who exactly are the two-faced dicks?

Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Tom Coburn (R-Okl.) Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), James Inhofe (R-Okl.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ari.).

That’s the same Jim DeMint who said this week that America is…

“…at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe.”

That’s the same Lindsey Graham who believes the country will be less safe with the transfer of Gitmo detainees to American soil.

Politics Before Country should be the new Republican motto.

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Former CIA officer Jack Rice…

“…what Peter King said, what Pete Hoekstra said—I mean there is no room for racial profiling in this country. Every study that I have seen—and I’m a former prosecutor too—every study I have seen has shown that it’s far more effective to follow what it is that people do rather than what they look like. And if we think about the broad picture now—let me see if we get this right. If we’re going to racially profile, we racially profile everybody across the Middle East. Now we find that this young 23 year old man from Nigeria—most of Nigeria is Christian by the way—so I guess what we’re going to have to do is include all of the people of Africa. But now let’s contemplate al Qaeda in the Philippines, so now we have to include people in Southeast Asia, so now we have about four billion people.”

“Look, I think when people make an argument for racial profiling they’re either lazy, they’re either arrogant, or frankly they’re racist. This is a foolish idea and the worst part of it all is that what we’re going to do is alienate about 1.5 billion Muslims. We desperately need these people on our side. If we go down that path we’re in a very, very serious problem.”

The system failed. Period. Investigate, find where the mistakes were made and fix them. What’s with the panic and hyperbole from conservatives? Is every incident concerning Muslims going to be a call for spreading racism and hatred?

Let’s hope that a leader soon emerges from the right with the intelligence and character to instill some calm and reason within the current and ridiculous version of the Republican party.  They can’t get more divisive and destructive than they’ve been.

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President Obama signed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 into law over the weekend. Why is that a big deal?

Because…

Within the Appropriations Act is Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) amendment prohibiting defense contractors from restricting their employees’ abilities to take workplace discrimination, battery, and sexual assault cases to court. The measure was inspired by Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang-raped by her co-workers while working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. Many Republicans opposed the legislation — saying it was an unnecessary attack on their allies in the defense contracting business — and faced intense political blowback over their positions.

Original story here.  For a list of Republicans who voted against Franken’s anti-rape amendment see Republicans For Rape.  Their stinking faces should be up on giant billboards across the country.

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Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina is making a serious run at becoming the next SPIC (Stupidest Person In Congress). The title is currently held by Michele Bachmann but Foxx is closing in fast. The Republican Congresswoman spoke about people in her district being frightened of the health care bill.  She then added this gem.

“I share that fear, and I believe they should be fearful. And I believe the greatest fear that we all should have to our freedom comes from this room – this very room – and what may happen later this week in terms of a tax increase bill masquerading as a health care bill.”

“I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.”

Sigh.

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